Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen refused to rule out Joe Biden invoking the 14th Amendment amid a stalemate on debt ceiling negotiations.
The 14th Amendment states that ““validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.” While invoking the 14th would undoubtedly invoke legal challenges, the theory is that it would be unconstitutional for the government to stop paying its debts and thus Biden could simply ignore the debt limit and continue to borrow if lawmakers don’t reach an agreement.
This idea has been floated before. During a debt ceiling standoff in 2011 when Barack Obama was in office, former President Bill Clinton said if he were in charge he’d simply invoke the 14th “without hesitation and force the courts to stop me.”
Despite admitting that using the 14th Amendment to solve the debt ceiling standoff would risk a constitutional crisis, when pressed three times over invoking the 14th was on the table, Yellen refused to answer.
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Matt Palumbo is the author of Fact-Checking the Fact-Checkers: How the Left Hijacked and Weaponized the Fact-Checking Industry and The Man Behind the Curtain: Inside the Secret Network of George Soros
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